Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Article

SnowShoe recently announced that it had received $1.0 million in a second round of seed funding. The San Francisco-based startup makes plastic objects that resemble rubber stamps. These ‘stamps’, when used with supported devices, can perform different types of actions in numerous applications.

The stamps are made of plastic through a 3D printing process. A unique combination of non-conductive and conductive plastic is used to make a base with a handle on top. In the same way you would apply an inked rubber stamp to paper, you apply this stamp object to the screen. The arrangement of non-conductive and conductive plastic simulates the movement of human fingers on a touchscreen.

In order for the stamp to work, it must be used with a supported device and browser open to a website that is enabled to process the stamp. Currently, only iOS devices are guaranteed to work with the stamps. Enabling a website is a simple process of adding three lines of JavaScript code into the page’s markup. Developers have access to an API and can order a kit with 100 production stamps, each with a unique serial number, to develop solutions that leverage SnowShoe.

Perhaps one of the most useful applications of the stamps and API is to offer a greater customer experience unique to those who possess the

stamps through omni-channel environments.

People who attended a concert or professional sporting event, for example, could have the stamps handed out to them and later access a page with an exclusive promotion or a link to download a song. It could also be used for in-store promotions, to verify the identity of a customer online and in video games.

A video with SnowShoe CEO Claus Moberg demonstrates the ability of SnowShoe to make use of the stamp non-transferrable. He first touches the screen on one mobile device to give a video game character a weapon. When he repeats the process on a second mobile device, the character on that device gets the weapon. The weapon disappears from the character on the first device simultaneously.

This same feature would prevent you from giving your stamp to a friend to get a promotion that they don’t deserve when they did not attend the same event you did. It could also be used to track customer behavior and tailor unique promotions and assure the vendor offering them that the customer received them.

SnowShoe has developed a creative way to leverage touchscreen technology that has a lot of potential. It has a lot of uses in promotional and entertainment applications and appears to be difficult to counterfeit. In an economy where many businesses are looking for ways to improve the customer experience, the stamps could attract a lot of interest.